parable

A young man was falling into it. In reality, it was falling into him. At first it was just a spark. Most sparks were quickly quenched by the mid-morning dew. The mid-morning dew was abundant. It was also cold outside. He was used to the cold. It was only warm sporadically. One spark, however, found a dry spot, lightly sheltered, in a place he didn’t take much notice of. At least he tried not to take much notice of it. He was a traveler and prided himself on his travels. This spot was near his home. Did he travel far and wide to avoid it? He wondered about that. Briefly.

The spark ignited. This surprised him. It burst into a consuming fire very near his home. It was very hot. Dangerously so. But he liked it. This surprised him. He had read about fires before. Big ones, like the one that razed Ancient Rome. He had read a lot. Secretly, he was intrigued by them. He wouldn’t tell people about that though. He would tell them about his travels. He was a traveler. He knew a lot about fires. He had never understood them though. This one started to burn his house. He was happy to let it burn.

This is a parable I wrote for my Narrative Preaching course. Parables speak of heavenly things through earthly things. We had three main principles to guide us:
1) tensive (it is and it is not)
2) effective (helps you come to knowledge)
3) ambiguous and uncertain